Hurricane Keith

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Hurricane Keith

Category 4 hurricane (SSHS)
Keith about to make landfall in Belize
Formed	September 28, 2000
Dissipated	October 6, 2000
Highest winds	140 mph (225 km/h) (1-minute sustained)
Lowest pressure	939 mbar (hPa)[1]
Damage	$319+ million (2000 USD)[2] $374+ million (2006 USD)
Fatalities	40 direct
Areas affected	Much of Central America, Belize, Mexico
Part of the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Keith, the strongest hurricane of the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season, was a Caribbean hurricane that caused great damage across Belize and southern Mexico.

A tropical wave organized into a tropical depression north-northeast of Cape Gracias a Dios, Nicaragua, on September 28. Tropical Storm Keith came a day later. The newly upgraded cyclone began to intensify rapidly as it moved west, reaching Category 4 strength in a short amount of time. It weakened slightly after its eyewall passed over Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, Belize on October 1. It spent two days looping off of Belize's coast. During this time, it weakened dramatically and was only a tropical storm when it made landfall in Belize. It quickly passed over the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico. The warm water strengthened Keith into minimal hurricane at its second landfall just north of Tampico. Dissipation occurred a day later.

Keith is responsible for forty deaths, twelve due to flooding in Nicaragua and fourteen also from flooding in Belize. Monetary damage in Belize is estimated at $280 million (2000 USD, $328 million 2006 USD),^[2] and $38 million (2000 USD, $44.5 million 2006 USD) in Mexico.

Contents 1 Storm history 2 Preparations 3 Impact 3.1 Belize 3.2 Rest of Central America 3.3 Mexico 4 Aftermath 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

[edit] Storm history

Hurricane Keith began as a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on September 16. It moved westward across the Atlantic without much development due to upper level shear. When it reached the western Caribbean Sea, upper level winds became much more favorable, and the wave developed into Tropical Depression Fifteen on September 28, 60 miles northeast of Cape Gracias a Dios, Nicaragua. The newly-formed tropical cyclone drifted northwestward, and became Tropical Storm Keith on the 29^th.

Conditions became nearly ideal for Keith's development on September 30, with little to no shear, a well developed anticyclone over it, and warm Caribbean water temperatures allowing for the storm to strengthen. Keith became a hurricane on the 30^th, which was followed by rapid intensification to a 140 mph (225 km/h) category four hurricane only 18 hours later.

As it neared the Belize coast, high pressure blocked further westward progress, leading Keith to execute a small loop just off the coast. Land interaction weakened the hurricane to a strong tropical storm by the time it made its first landfall on October 3. Keith became disorganized over the Yucatan, but reintensified when it reached the Gulf of Mexico on October 4. The storm was able to intensify to a 90 mph hurricane before making its final landfall near Tampico, Mexico on the 5^th. Keith dissipated over northeastern Mexico the next day.

[edit] Preparations

In Corozal, Belize, the authorities evacuated the entire city of 10,000 people to numerous shelters in Orange Walk.^[3] Nicaragua also had officials evacuate more than 300 people from low-lying areas.^[4]

In Mexico, 5,000 people from Chetumal and surrounding low-lying areas were forced to evacuate,^[4] and after the storm's second landfall, another 5,000 were forced evacuated from several municipalities in Nuevo León, with 2,465 from Monterrey, and 1,900 from rural areas, with a cost of $400,000 (2000 MXN).^[5]

[edit] Impact

Storm deaths by region

Region	Direct deaths
Belize	19[6]
El Salvador	1
Nicaragua	12
Honduras	6
Guatemala	1
Mexico	1
Total	40

Keith was a very difficult hurricane to forecast. Its strength extremes and its stalling offshore Belize caused many problems to forecasters. This led to a deadly situation of waiting for the storm to finally recede.

Keith caused massive flooding over Belize and Mexico, as well as road destruction and landslides. The storm caused 40 direct deaths and an unknown amount of indirect deaths.

[edit] Belize

While Keith was offshore Belize, it actually caused a negative surge, draining water out of various waterways. Several places were said to have a water level 4 feet below average. The only actual storm surge was reported in Caye Caulker, at only 4-5 feet. The National Hurricane Center also received reports of the water in the Bay of Chetumal was temporarily blown out of the bay by northerly winds from Keith. Some people were courageous enough to walk into the exposed ocean floor, not realizing that the water could return at any moment. Fortunately, nobody was injured or killed while on the ocean bottom.^[1]

Belize City acquired up to four feet of water, and with the help of winds, knocked out the phone lines and electricity. Some of the downed power lines were sending sparks into the open, forcing most people to remain in their homes after the storm until the live wires were fixed or removed.^[1] Twenty homes at the very least were damage to some degree in the capital, while many more suffered minor roof damage.^[3] 40 homes in Caye Caulker were destroyed, while the remaining buildings lost phone connection and electricity in Caye Caulker and San Pedro, Belize. The lagoon area of San Pedro received the worst damage in the city. The local Texaco station was completely demolished. San Juan was spared, but San Pedrito was significantly affected by Keith. Only twelve houses were reported to have stood up to the storm's wrath. The rest were flattened.^[1]

Several areas in Belize received up to 10 inches of rain, but the Philip Goldson International Airport in Belize City reported a total of 32.67 inches.^[1]

The five Belizean deaths occurred after two catamarans broke loose from what was holding them. An additional 14 people perished, likely due to flooding.^[6] Several injuries, mainly from flying debris, were reported in San Pedro, but fortunately, no fatalities. The major hurricane caused an estimated $280 million (2000 USD, $328 million 2006 USD)^[2] in damage in Belize.^[1]

[edit] Rest of Central America

Damage estimates in Guatemala are unavailable, but heavy rains were reported to have caused flooding in ten towns^[1] and one person, a young girl, was reported to have become the first fatality from Keith in Guatemala.^[7] A sixteen-year-old boy in Nicaragua was swept away by the fast moving flooded river.^[4] The eleven other casualties caused by Keith were due to flooding from heavy rains.^[1] Thirteen communities in the country were completely isolated from the rest of the world after Keith made roads impassable.^[8] Five of the fatalities in Honduras came from when an aircraft disappeared near Roatan Island.^[1] The other death was from heavy flooding.^[1] Damage estimates are unavailable.^[1] In El Salvador, a 20-year-old man drowned in a river and another 300 people were affected by flooding.^[4]

[edit] Mexico

Damage totals in Mexico
in millions of 2000 MXN, unadjusted for inflation^[5]

State	Direct damage	Indirect damage	Total
Sonora	63.936	0.500	64.436
Nuevo León	115.600	0	115.600
Tamaulipas	117.167	0.683	117.850
Quintana Roo	39.716	2.767	42.483
Chiapas	25.569	0	25.569
Totals	$361.988	$3.950	$365.938

In Nuevo León, near Monterrey, Keith caused torrential rainfall, with the average precipitation on the state being 120 mm (5 in), causing mudslides on several cities, including San Pedro, Guadalupe and Escobedo. The swift currents, caused by the flash flood after the storm, rose up to 250 m³ (9000 cfs), and dragged 130 people into local rivers; however, all were rescued, and none of them were killed. The rivers also dragged 30 vehicles, all of which were moderate to total losses. The storm runoff caused the El Cuchillo dam to receive 130 million m³ (105,000 acre-feet) of water daily, and the La Boca dam to receive 1 million m³ (810 acre-feet) per hour. 13,000 residents also lost power.^[5] The total damages in the state rose to $115.6 million (2000 MXN, 12.2 million 2000 USD), with the damage to urban infrastructure being the most expensive portion of the damage, with $44.2 million (2000 MXN, $4.6 million 2000 USD) used to repair damage in eight municipalities; in particular, San Pedro Garza García received approximately three quarters of the infrastructure damage, with $30.8 million (2000 MXN, $3.3 million 2000 USD). Additionally, about 460 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 300 families had to be relocated to safer areas.^[5]

In Tamaulipas, the storm caused as much, if not more rainfall than in Nuevo León. In a reporting station in the municipality of Gómez Farías, the pluviometer reported a 24-hour rain total of 336.5 mm (13.24 in), and a storm total of 468.5 mm (18.44 in), which broke the precipitation record for that location, which counted with 35 years of data.^[5] This rain also caused rivers to reach record levels, as the Sabinas River rose 10.95 m (35.93 ft) on October 6, to a new historical peak, and the Guayalejo River rose 23.61 m (77.46 ft), slightly under the 1976 record. This rainfall caused the Las Ánimas dam to catch 64.8 million m³ (525,000 acre-feet) of water between October 5 and October 17; however, some of this water had to be released, as the upstream face of the dam was damaged by debris, and had to be repaired.^[5] Overall, the storm produced $117.8 million in damage (2000 MXN, $12.4 million 2000 USD) in the state.

In other states, damage was lighter, but still significant. In Sonora, total damages rose to $64.4 million (2000 MXN, $6.8 million 2000 USD); in Quintana Roo, $42.2 million (2000 MXN, $4.5 million 2000 USD) were incurred, and in Chiapas, $25.6 million (2000 MXN, $2.7 million 2000 USD) of property damage were caused by the storm. This brings up the total damage in Mexico to $365.9 million (2000 MXN, $38.7 million 2000 USD).^[5]

The death in Mexico that was associated with Keith was apparently due to flooding from heavy rains.^[1]

[edit] Aftermath

See also: List of retired Atlantic hurricanes

Several emergency teams were sent to Caye Caulker and San Pedro in Belize as soon as weather conditions permitted it. Widespread road repairs also began almost immediately after Keith's occurrence. The Belize International Airport was back online by the morning of October 4, only a single day after the severe tropical cyclone passed through the area. A donation account to help the relief effort, titled Hurricane Keith Relief Fund, was set up by the town of Placencia, in the local Atlantic Bank. The Belize Consulate in California also set up a donation fundraiser.

Placencia also delivered a boat full of donated food, clothing, and building supplies to the San Pedro and Caye Caulker area.^[9]

United Nations Development Programme received $30,000 (2000 USD, $35,000 2006 USD) from the Government of Norway to give immediate relief to the country of Belize. United Nations Children's Fund also gave out $150,000 (2000 USD, $176,000 2006 USD) for relief in areas not focused on by other relief groups.^[10]

The name Keith was retired in the spring of 2001 and was replaced with Kirk. The name Kirk has yet to be used, as the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season did not have enough storms to reach the name.

[edit] See also

• Tropical cyclone
• List of notable tropical cyclones
• List of notable Atlantic hurricanes

[edit] External links

• Belize's experience
• NHC's Tropical Cyclone Report for Keith
• HPC Rainfall Page for Keith
• Damage assessment

[edit] References